Robotics is an active area of research, and many different types of robotic vehicles have been developed for various tasks. For example, unmanned aerial vehicles have been quite successful in military aerial reconnaissance. Less success has been achieved with unmanned ground vehicles, however, in part because the ground environment is significantly more difficult to traverse than the airborne environment.
Unmanned ground vehicles face many challenges when attempting mobility. Terrain can vary widely, including for example, loose and shifting materials, obstacles, vegetation, limited width or height openings, steps, and the like. A vehicle optimized for operation in one environment may perform poorly in other environments.
A variety of mobility configurations have been adapted to traverse difficult terrain. These options include legs, wheels, and tracks. Legged robots can be agile, but use complex control mechanisms to move and achieve stability. Wheeled vehicles can provide high mobility, but provide limited traction and generally require width in order to achieve stability. While tracked vehicles can provide a high degree of stability in some environments, tracked vehicles often provide limited maneuverability with very small vehicles. Furthermore, known tracked vehicles are unable to accommodate a wide variety of obstacles, particularly when the terrain is narrow and the paths are tortuous and winding. Accordingly, known mobility configurations tend to be limited in the missions in which they can accomplish.